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How to Type in Japanese and Other Languages

The following is a simple tutorial for enabling your computer to type the Japanese text. Similar steps can be taken for Korean Chinese and other languages. If you don't have Windows Vista the following link might cover what you need to do.

As usual, go to the Control Panel, click on Add a language (or search language in the search bar.)

Clicking Add a language will bring you to a selection of languages. Choose the language you want. Some languages will prompt the Open button instead of Add, as they have further options for you to decide on.

Now that you have added a language, click on Options to confirm/select the input method you want.

3. Tick the checkbox next to "Kotoeri" and you're good to go Hiragana is selected by default so that when you type, it'll be in Hiragana then auto-converted to Kanji and so on, but you can also select Katakana or Romaji if you prefer.

Another alternative to the inbuilt input systems is something njt recommended to me, and it's what I'm using right now Google IME, which works on both Windows and Macs. The benefit of Google IME is that it gleans info off the internet, so you'll be using words that are commonly used. For example, if I want to type the title of the manga Shiki (屍鬼), I wouldn't be able to get it if I used the standard input systems since 屍鬼 is not actually a word per se. I'd get 四季... 式... 指揮... But not what I want! However, since the word 屍鬼 is fairly common on the internet with people discussing the series, it will appear on the IME kanji conversion list when I type "しき" This means easy typing of names like 黒崎一護 which actually aren't standard/normal.

In addition, typing things like "イエイ" easily gets you the emoji "v(￣Д￣)v ｲｴｲ"! How awesome is that?

Re: How to Type in Japanese and Other Languages

Originally Posted by saradesu

Another alternative to the inbuilt input systems is something njt recommended to me, and it's what I'm using right now Google IME, which works on both Windows and Macs. The benefit of Google IME is that it gleans info off the internet, so you'll be using words that are commonly used. For example, if I want to type the title of the manga Shiki (屍鬼), I wouldn't be able to get it if I used the standard input systems since 屍鬼 is not actually a word per se. I'd get 四季... 式... 指揮... But not what I want! However, since the word 屍鬼 is fairly common on the internet with people discussing the series, it will appear on the IME kanji conversion list when I type "しき" This means easy typing of names like 黒崎一護 which actually aren't standard/normal.

Since I've never used Google IME or the drawing pad that cmertb mentioned, I can't say much about it.

Anyway, I am sure that many people in Japan prefer ATOK over MS IME. (ATOK has been around in Japan for decades.)

MS IME can be pretty bad, but there are ways to go around it if you chose to use it.

To type 屍鬼(しき/shiki):

(1) Type しかばね to convert it to kanji (屍), then add 鬼(おに/oni)
This works only if you already know how to read kanji.

Re: How to Type in Japanese and Other Languages

Well, I can't do a tutorial since I have zero image editing skills, but there is a button on your language toolbar that brings up the drawing pad. You can draw with the mouse, and as you draw, the app keeps displaying characters that look closest to what you're drawing. It's very fault tolerant, which makes it easy to use. I use it often when the scan is too low res to make out any individual radical, but when I start drawing what the kanji looks like to me, very often the correct one pops up at some point.

As for ATOK, do you have to buy it separately and install in Windows? Or do Japanese Windows already come with it pre-installed?

Re: How to Type in Japanese and Other Languages

Originally Posted by cmertb

Well, I can't do a tutorial since I have zero image editing skills, but there is a button on your language toolbar that brings up the drawing pad. You can draw with the mouse, and as you draw, the app keeps displaying characters that look closest to what you're drawing.

As for ATOK, do you have to buy it separately and install in Windows? Or do Japanese Windows already come with it pre-installed?

I haven't downloaded the google IME yet, but I played around with the drawing pad you mentioned. I found it under [tools]-[IME Pad]-[Hand Writing (JA)]. It worked just like you said.

ATOK was developed in Japan as part of a well known word processor application called Ichitaro. The company now sells ATOK separately as well. It's quite expensive (around 100USD), so I would not just recommend it to anyone.

Re: How to Type in Japanese and Other Languages

I use a program called the JWPce (Japanese Word Processor CE - the programmer made it for Windows CE but it works fine in XP and Win7, etc., and it's free). My college Japanese professor showed us how to use it, and it's pretty great - has a dictionary database, and you can look up kanji by a number of different methods, including SKIP. The default as you type is in hiragana; you get katakana by holding shift or using caps lock, and you can do kanji insert by 'capitalizing' the first letter in a word.

Another awesome thing about it is that it's small enough to store on a thumb drive, and it doesn't have to be installed - it just runs from a folder with all of its necessary files. So I can take it to work or a campus library, for example, where you'd have to have admin privileges to get Windows to install Japanese for display.

Re: How to Type in Japanese and Other Languages

hey guys
i'm new here and really i didn't know what to do i didn't understand it
i have windows XP and i don't know a lot about japanies and and and
and i need your help --'
please

Hi there, can you tell us more about your problem? I'm not a Windows users myself but I'll try my best to help if I can I'm thinking the process should be fairly similar to installing Japanese input in either Vista or 7, though?

Re: How to Type in Japanese and Other Languages

hey guys
i'm new here and really i didn't know what to do i didn't understand it
i have windows XP and i don't know a lot about japanies and and and
and i need your help --'
please

You need to:
* install files for East Asian Languages (Japanese) and add a (Japanese) keyboard.
* learn how to use IME

Log on as an administrator.

Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Regional and Language Options.

On the Languages tab, under Supplemental language support, select the Install files for East Asian languages check box then click OK or Apply. (Select only the necessary language(s)/Japanese to install.) Click Apply or OK.

On the Languages tab, under Text services and input languages, click Details button to add a Japanese Keyboard. (Keep the default language as English. 1. Click Add button. 2. Chose Japanese input language and Keyboard layout/IME.) Click Apply or OK.

You may want to use Windows Help and Support information for more detail.

Last edited by mikkih; August 22, 2011 at 07:54 PM.
Reason: striketrhough